RWANDANS have been subjected to the whining of this woman, Victoire Ingabire, since she landed from Mars totally out of touch with the reality of today’s Rwanda and fixated upon the ideologies of yesteryears and the politics of her forefathers of hate, divisionism, discrimination, jealousy, negativism and pure retrogression.

My dear sister, people have moved on and have said "Never again!”

We are a people who have refused to accept the fate that history and the colonialists handed us; we are a people who have defied all odds and changed the political landscape of our country.  We have brought back peace, stability, unity and reconciliation and we are never turning back!!  "Forward ever, backwards never” is our slogan.

The last straw was when Mrs. Ingabire was reported on Saturday, 25 July 2010, on BBC Radio as having said that her landlord had given her 2 weeks to vacate his house and she blames the eviction on President Kagame?  Preposterous! 

If what the UN report says is true about Mrs. Ingabire financing the FDLR and other rebels based in the DRC, then why, she surely has enough money to buy herself a palace in the heart of Kigali and should therefore stop whining about being given an eviction notice by a landlord who has the right to his property!!!

What she may want to dispute, perhaps, is any contravention to the contract and infraction on the law on tenancy.  But then Ingabire’s standard explanation for anything that happens to her, including the right of a private Rwandan citizen to exercise his prerogative to terminate a tenancy agreement, is that it must be the action of Kagame and his government - even when there is patently no proof of such claims.

That this is Ingabire’s broken-record refrain is perhaps understandable; the woman has no other argument for her lack of traction on the Rwandan political landscape. What is more amazing, however, is the apparent readiness of the foreign media to swallow this kind of tall tale without question.

This is, perhaps, a better commentary on the supposed ethical standards of the kind of journalism practiced by these self-proclaimed arbiters of what deserves to be news than a true reflection of what is happening in Rwanda.

As for the specific case of the BBC - whatever became of the professional ethics and research capabilities that are allegedly your hallmark?  Have they slipped to this low tabloid level only today, or were those standards in fact never more than a product of well-designed self-promotion?

Why do you continue to focus on spoilt child Ingabire "being locked out of the elections”, as though Rwanda must bend its rules to allow suspects of serious crime (she still has a court case and an international indictment against her) the privilege of stepping on other people’s toes.  What about our own rights? Do you realize that your continuous and ridiculous claim of Ingabire as "leader of the opposition” would, if transposed to Britain, be akin to the risible notion of the BNP’s Nick Griffin as leader of the opposition?

Or is it that you, like many of your western counterparts, believe that what is unacceptable in your own countries is perfectly alright for us? Do the rights of the 10 million law-abiding citizens of this country, many of whom have suffered, through the pre-1994 regimes, unimaginable torture, discrimination, exclusion and even genocide:  the ultimate in human rights abuses, count for naught? 

What about us?   Where, tell, do you believe you derive the authority to moralize and preach to us when, like the overwhelming majority of your kind, you remained deafeningly mute while we got slaughtered by the million in 1994?

Worse still, what the BBC forgets to report (or could it be a conscious omission) is that her running mate, Joseph Ntawangundi, is a self-confessed killer who entered the country under a false identity.

Do you really hold us in this level of contempt that this is the kind of leadership you’d wish for us?  It is quite obvious that you, BBC, do not have the well-being of Rwandans at heart - but then, come to think of it, why should you?  You are not Rwandan and, most probably, are flustered by the fact that a "tiny” African country dares to break the stereotype you have assigned to us and is rising to glory whether you deem it fitting or not!!! 

Calling this country and its leaders criminals, or human rights abusers, or dictators might satisfy your own sense of over-inflated superiority, but will not deter or prevent us from setting and applying ourselves wholeheartedly to achieving our own development goals.   Broadcast till the cows come home, we will not allow criminals to rule us ever again!

What matters most is what, we Rwandans want for ourselves, not what a section of the self-anointed arbiters of international standards dictates, no matter how loud their megaphones.

We Rwandans want to set our own destination. We are prepared to listen to constructive criticism from our friends in the wider global community, but we will not knuckle under to the dictates of those who will not suffer the consequences of their wrong advice or any wrong choices we make.

We cherish partners but we do not accept masters. We have come a long way and have paid a heavy price to emancipate our country from foreign adventurers and their local agents.

We have similarly come a long way:

• From the politics of divisionism, hate and destruction to the politics of unity and reconciliation;
• From policies of exclusion, nepotism and regionalism to policies of equal opportunity and advancement based on meritocracy;

• From a people with a mindset of defeat, resignation and hopelessness to a people of hope, self-respect, vigour and innovation;

• From a people with no rights, accustomed and submissive to discrimination, terror and oppression to a hard-working and free people whose world-renown and dignity has finally been restored;

• From an army (FAR) that tortured, decimated and committed genocide against its own people to a new and invincible force, the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), that respects the sanctity of life and protects beyond the borders of its own territory.

As for you, dear Ingabire, "Umugisha ntabwo ubyiganirwa.

Ends